SRHE Members must log-in to access member registration rates 

Overview:

Generative AI is transforming higher education in a range of subtle and not so subtle ways. There are some AI systems that seem to support inclusion, for example, Grammarly but there is evidence that AI also has more deleterious effects on the development of inclusive approaches to education.

This roundtable series is an opportunity to explore the experiences and emerging research specifically in relation to AI and inclusion. This series will take a broad view of inclusion covering both protected characteristics and the wider panoply of issues identified in institutional EORRs. We aims to develop shared understanding of the potential and limitations of AI in terms of developing inclusivity in education (at pedagogical and curricula levels).

Abstract:

The recent introduction of ChatGTP and other generative AI platforms has stimulated much debate and concern (Grundy 2024; UN 2024). Much of which resonates with debates surrounding the introduction of social media platforms at the turn of the 21^st century (Davies 2010; Kowalski, Limber, and Agatston 2012; DfE 2014).

In the field of secondary and higher education, concerns focus on notions of inclusion held in tension between celebrating the role of AI in extending human capabilities and activities and the dumbing down or replacing of existing skills deemed necessary for students’ social and academic development. Two key questions emerge; i. what kind of ethical subjects are we seeking to produce? ii. how do we train students to work in synergy with AI?

Taking the assertion that human beings and AI have the capacity to learn but, apart from AI, humans have the capacity to be taught and to receive teaching (Biesta 2016a; 2024), I consider these questions in the context of a coinciding education debate. Here, equality and inclusion are claimed impossible in the context of the modern European school as an institution of normalisation (Ball and Collet-Sabe 2021; 2022). Subsequently, calls to think differently apart from schools are made in favour of more ethical activities that explore the limits and a politics of the self by creating educational spaces that support self-formation and practices of collaboration. Specifically, meeting the needs of individuals, communities and the environment as a holistic project.

It is with the context of collaboration in mind that I offer youth work, a process rather than outcome led, informal education pedagogy as a conceptual framework to nurture discursive educational spaces within students’ homes, social and community sites. This, I argue, might support their holistic development and learning in synergy with emergent AI platforms but not apart from being taught and receiving teaching within their broader relationships that nurture and sustain holistic (social and academic) self-formation. 

Speaker bio 

Simon Edwards is senior lecturer in youth studies in the school of Education, Languages and Linguistics at University of Portsmouth. He is pathway lead for the Childhood and Youth Studies with Social Pedagogy programme and vice chair of the faculty of humanities and social science ethics committee.  Corresponding with the theme of this workshop, he has written and delivered taught modules and supervised students with their dissertations on bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes on themes around digital technologies, social media and education. His research and publications have considered the role social media play in the construction of viable self-narratives, young peoples’ lived experiences of school exclusion and ethical relational practices that support young people’s and their families’ wellbeing and social and academic development. He is currently leading discussions at school and faculty level that consider the ethical implications of using AI in teaching and learning and research processes.